To:HIS MOTHER

Published:First published in 1929 in the journalProletarskaya RevolyutsiyaNo. 4.

      Sent from Shushenskoye to Moscow.

      Printed from 
 the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 37,

      pages171-172.Translated:The Late George H. HannaTranscription\Markup:D. MorosPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

May 10, 1898

Atlast, Mother dearest, my visitors have
arrived.[2]They got here on the evening of May 7, and on that very
day I was clever enough to go shooting, so they did not
find me at home. Nadezhda Konstantinovna, I find, is not
looking at all well—she will have to take more care of her
health while she is here. As for me—Yelizaveta Vasilyevna
exclaimed, “Oh, how fat you’re getting!”; and so, you
see, you could not wish for a better report!

Theterribly sad thing is that they did not bring any
good news about Mitya!

Ireceived your letter sent with them and that of April 20.
A bigmercifor the things you sent. N.K. has made
arrangements in Minusinsk about the books that are to come and
I hope I shall get them soon without any trouble. I may
fetch them myself as I intend going “to town”.

Aboutsteamers. They took N.K. only as far as Sorokino
(some 70 versts from Minusinsk) after they had waited a
week in Krasnoyarsk. The water in the river is still low;
there will be high water about the end of May or beginning
of June. It is 55 versts from Minusinsk to Shusha. The
local steamers make irregular trips; there is no timetable,
but, on the whole, once navigation begins they will probably
run more or less regularly and without any unusual delays.
I would very much like you to come here if you could
manage it—if only Mitya is released soon.

Bythe way, Anyuta asked me who I was going to invite
to the wedding; I invite all of you, only I do not know
whether it would not perhaps be better to telegraph theinvitations! As you know, N.K. has been confronted with a
tragi-comic condition—she must get marriedimmediately(sic!)
or back to Ufa! Since I am not at all disposed to allow that,
we have already begun “bothering” the authorities (mainly
for identification papers, without which we cannot get
married), so that we shall be able to marry before the Fast of

St. Peter[1];

we permit ourselves to hope that these strict
authorities will consider this a sufficiently “immediate”
marriage?! I am inviting the people from Tesinskoye (they are
already writing that I shall certainly need witnesses) and I
hope they will be allowed to come.

Regardsto all.

Mykisses,Yours,V. U.

Ialmost forgot—Nadya tells me that some books on
philosophy were on their way to me, and that they went
past here to Irkutsk. Why is it that I haveneverheard
anything about this? Has some letter been lost? I would
ask Anyuta to find out what happened.

[1]*Marriagecould not be celebrated during any of the three fasts
practised by the Russian Orthodox Church—Lent, St. Peter’s and
Christmas.—Ed.

[2]NadezhdaKrupskaya and her mother joined Lenin at the village
of Shushenskoye on May 7, 1898.